Bioinspired Robotics

This robot fly, capable of lift-off, was created using layered micromachined composite structures. With a tiny carbon fiber body and wings made of thin plastic sheets, the fly was inspired by the way real insects move. See video...

From insects in your backyard, to creatures in the sea, to what you see in the mirror, this team draws inspiration from Nature to design a whole new class of smart robotic devices.

Many of the most advanced robots in use today are still far less sophisticated than ants that "self-organize" to build an ant hill, or termites that work together to build impressive, massive mounds in Africa. That is why Wyss scientists are taking their cues from the insect world to design and fabricate a new, "smarter" class of robotic devices that move and adapt like living creatures and harness the power of self assembly.

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Here we describe a way to pattern self-assembled monolayers using a single alkanethiol on substrates consisting of regions of different topography: planar islands of one metal on the surface of a second.

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Between conception and birth, the human gut grows more than two meters long, looping and coiling within the tiny abdomen. Within a given species, the developing vertebrate gut always loops into the same formation—however, until now, it has not been clear why.

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The motion of a ruck in a rug is used as an analogy to explain the role of dislocations in crystalline solids. We take one side of this analogy and study the shape and motion of a bump, wrinkle or ruck in a thin sheet.